otions are refuted by the fact, that God is the
Author of the Bible.

When we say that God is the Author of the Bible, and that it carries
with it a divine authority because it is the Word of God, we do not mean
that God is the Author of every saying in it, and that every sentiment
recorded in it is God's mind, any more than we mean to make D'Aubigne
responsible for every sentiment of priests, popes and monks which he has
faithfully recorded in his History of the Reformation. On the contrary,
we find, in the very beginning of the Bible, a very full expression of
the devil's sentiments recorded in the devil's own words--_Ye shall not
surely die_--and they are not one whit less devilish and lying, though
recorded in the Bible, than when expounded by any modern Universalist
preacher. But we mean that it is very true that the devil was the
preacher of that first Universalist sermon: and that God thought it
needful to let mankind know the shape of the doctrine, the character of
the preacher, and the consequences of listening to error; and therefore
directed Moses to record it truly for the information of all whom it may
concern. So there are many other sayings of wicked men, and even of good
men, recorded in the Bible, which are very false; but the Bible gives a
true record of them, by God's direction, that we may not be ignorant of
Satan's devices.

Nor, when we say that God directed the prophets what to write, and how
to write it, so that they did not go wrong in the writing of his word,
do we mean that he also so guided every piece of their behavior, as that
they never went wrong in doing their own actions; nor that the sins of
the saints, recorded in the Bible, are anything the less sinful for
being recorded there, or for being performed by men who ought to have
known better. There is not a perfect man upon the earth, that doeth
good, and sinneth not. If the Bible had left the faults of its writers
undiscovered it would not have been a true history. But these very
writers of the Bible tell us their own transgressions, under the
direction of the Spirit of God; a thing writers in general are very shy
about. Moses tells us how he spake unadvisedly with his lips, and was
punished for it. David's penitential psalms record the bitter tears he
wept over his transgression; tears which could not wash out the sentence
against the man after God's own heart--_the sword shall never depart
from thy house_. An overburdened people, a r